Desertification
by RedMamba
Summary: Mystogan takes a mission after the battle to Fantasia and is asked to look that Laxus won't meet his father. Oh boy, he never thought that something like this would happen.  Humour, Adventure and some serious hints of yaoi though nothing overly romantic.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Fairy Tail nor any of the characters.

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><p>The guild was as noisy as it always was. Natsu was screaming around so that Gray would fight him, since Natsu was not bandaged anymore, but there were still clear marks of the fight against Laxus. Lucy sat at the bar and talked with Mirajane, who every now and then glanced to the master, who had drunk much more than normally. She was clearly worried about the old man. It could be seen in his eyes how much it pained him to expel his grandson.<p>

"Natsu! Gray! Stop that immediately!" Erza shouted as the two had thrown her strawberry cake down on the floor. With no second hesitation she took a long bat and took Natsu and Gray out in one strike. The whole guild laughed.

"It's nice that they are back at normal." Lucy mentioned and sipped from her vanilla milkshake. She dodged a plate flying right to her and was about to explode, that was when she felt Mira fall over the bar. She could barely hold her and saw that it was her, who got the dish at full speed at her head. Even unconscious she still smiled lovely.

"Guys look at what you've done!" Lucy shrieked, but she was not heard, since the whole guild was now fighting and it became more and more violent. Lucy decided that it was time to take herself and Mira behind the bar to wait until they had fought enough.

Suddenly she felt very tired. _Mystogan. _The guild calmed down, here and there she already heard someone snore. Before she dozed off she heard some Fairy Tail mages drop to the floor. Wasn't there a soft sound of bells ringing…?

Mystogan knew he had to come back to the guild before long and he decided it would be best to do so fast and take a long job and leave for a while. So now he stood outside Magnolia city and began to cast his sleeping spell. He converted his body to mist, when he was sure that everyone in the guild slept, except for the master of course. He opened the door only to find a chaos like he had never seen before.

This is quite something, he thought as he climbed over the sleeping mages to the request board. He stood fairly long before that, searching for a mission long enough to take him away from here for about a month. There were only three S-class jobs so he guessed he'd choose one randomly. He pulled one of those down and showed it the master, who seemed oddly awake.

"Hmm, take it. But I have a favor to ask you Mystogan." The old man told him. Mystogan signed to him that he was listening. "You picked this mission, which will lead you near to the desert. I think Laxus is going to his father and I would like you to prevent that."

The masked man was taken by surprise; it didn't occur often that he was someone the master relied on too much. Of course it was partly his fault for never showing his face and not really being in the guild, but this was a bit much to ask of.

"Will you do it?" Makarov looked firmly at him and gave the impression that a 'no' would not be accepted.

"Yes, but don't expect much." Mystogan answered emotionlessly. "I'll take my leave then."

He turned around and somehow managed to get to the front door without stepping on anyone. He sighted shortly and released the spell.

The same time he disappeared all the eyes opened again.

"Damn that Mystogan, always putting everyone to sleep." Macao complained and touched his right shoulder on which he had lied on the floor, naturally on something uncomfortable. He changed his mind the moment he saw a reddish spot on Cana's waist, obviously coming from his body weight, since she was now standing right next to him.

"Mystogan…" Natsu mumbled more for himself. He tried to catch his smell, but all he could say, was that there was nothing unusual in the air.

"He's out on a mission." Makarov explained plainly and looked out of the window into the grayish sky, where rain clouds were forming up. Somehow he felt like there would be a change; something would happen on Mystogan's mission.

_Oh, and he was absolutely right._

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><p>Hellohello :D<p>

I hope you liked the chapter one of this story^^ I'm not planning on giving it up yet so :D Any comments? Critics?

RedMamba


	2. Serious problems

The wind blew strongly and he had hard times to keep his cloak around him so that it wouldn't fly away and, more dangerous, reveal his face. It was oddly cold and it was not the first time Mystogan asked himself, if he was going the right way. Though he had travelled by train as far as he could get and was now roughly three or four kilometers from the village away, where the request came from, it was cold. Really cold for a place, that was said to be near the desert.

_Maybe the Master made a mistake and thought it was near to the desert and it isn't at all… _Mystogan thought, but he saw that it was he, who was mistaken. The moment he saw the village, he saw the desert right behind it. Majestic and dominating the big rocks stood in the sand and seemed to threaten the little houses, which were only protected by a wall made of wood.

He stopped before the closed gate. He didn't raise his voice or say anything, but the villagers still noticed him. Some of them stood on a ledge eyeing the suspicious looking man. They seemed to be very carefully estimating, if they could trust him.

"Are you from the guild, which took on the request?" A voice finally asked. Mystogan couldn't find out to whom it belonged, but he knew it was a woman.

"Yes, I am." He said clearly audible. He waited for the doors to open, but they didn't move an inch. He looked up.

"Show us your sign." The same voice demanded. It seemed, as if the village had had some problems with mages before and could not trust them anymore. Mystogan lifted his right arm and showed the sign, which was on his forearm so he could only take off a bit of the bandages.

There were some murmurs and then the gates were opened. The moment Mystogan was inside, the doors slammed back to their original places and raised dust. Inside was a really awkward atmosphere, almost ghostly. He felt multiple eyes watching him and following his every movement, always ready to react if something wasn't right. He sighed.

"Welcome. We can discuss the request inside the village head's house, please follow me." It was the same voice that had called to him earlier. It was indeed a woman. She was about thirty, maybe a bit younger. She had long brown hair that curled wildly around her face until her waist. She was incredibly tall, a good head if not two taller than Mystogan and he was quite sure, he wasn't that small. The woman turned around and left for a house, he had to follow.

When they reached the house a man, about the same age as her, stood before the entrance and greeted the woman, obviously his wife. He let both in and looked at Mystogan; the man was clearly suspicious of him. They walked through the foyer into a living room. Everything was held in dark tones and made of wood. It was the second time Mystogan wondered where all this wood came from. It was fairly far to the next forest, he knew since he walked past it.

"You wanted to talk about the request?" He wanted to get out as fast as possible, something just crept him seriously out in this village.

"Yes, please take a seat." The man offered; Mystogan refused politely. "As you can see, this whole village is made of wood. You must have wondered where that all comes from, since there is absolutely nothing to grow on."

Mystogan nodded slowly. But the request wasn't because of disappearing forests or mysteriously built houses of wood. He signed them that he listened and they should continue. He still felt those watching eyes it was really disturbing.

"The desert has grown, that is the reason all the trees are dying and nothing rises from this sand. We think it is the work of a demon or a monster. So we asked for someone to take that thing down, which lets all the plants die and wither away. Since there is also the possibility of dark mages doing this, the request changes a bit. We all hope you can take whatever causes this down. The reward is seventeen million Jewels, as written in the request paper."

"I see. Thank you. Leave it to me." Mystogan got up and walked out of the house, where he converted his body and appeared outside. Immediately he felt relief.

_It's not like me at all. _He thought and walked around the village for a bit. The night was extending its claws over the sky; soon it would be too dark to see anything. He estimated the time he would need to get back to the village he had taken an apartment and he thought it would be best if he left now and came back in the morning.

In these few minutes darkness had fallen abnormally fast upon the desert so it wouldn't to any good to stay here longer. Even he had some problems seeing possible enemies at night not to talk about fighting them. The starry sky with its pale light made the silhouettes of the stone pillars seem even more tremendous. It was true that in a desert night falls very quickly. Mystogan had no problems in imagining a monster or two being the cause of this, now that everything seemed so small and insignificant.

He sighed and started to convert of his body to mist, like this he would be fairly fast back. But before he was completely intangible he felt a magic he knew. Just where he knew that from he wasn't able to recall. Then everything just occurred too fast. There were stars above him, under him and sand here and there, but before all, he could feel something very smooth and abnormally hot. He dropped to the ground, feeling that he swallowed some sand and dirt. Uncontrolled coughing was what he got; he wasn't able to do much. With a last amount of strength in his surprised body he turned around, only to see red eyes staring at him wildly. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw the paws of the thing rise against his head. Somehow he got his arms between him and the beast, and then everything got black.

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><p>He hummed some melody he knew from back then when he was a child as he walked around the town. Ultimately he had no particular goal in his mind; he just wanted to wander around Fiore for the time being until he found something he could do to pass his time. For now however he had some fun games to play.<p>

"Did you hear of the awoken desert?" Someone passing him blurted out. Immediately it caught his attention. He knew he had heard of it. "It seems to be near Wuuduvija. They've got a problem there now." The two men walked further and Laxus stood there irritated.

_Where do I know the 'awoken desert'? _He had to think back a bit until he found it. It was the request that had hung at the guild for quite a while and no one ever took it. So there was someone stupid enough to take that. He smirked, it was obvious that he knew something, but he just wandered further the street down, not wasting a second thought on whoever that mage would be.

Until, of course, he heard some very pretty girls talk about this matter. He was sitting in a bar and drinking beer, watching sexy girls wandering around. He'd have fun with them; he thought to himself and grinned. But just in that very moment, a red haired girl said something disturbing, really disturbing.

"The one, who said he'd go to Wuuduvija? I bet he's handsome, that guy's left his belongings in our hotel, ya know. Didn't say much though, but had nice ways treating us. He better comes back, not like the other ones." She said, her hair swinging from one side to the other.

"I'd like to see him. He sounds cool, but I seriously doubt he returns. How many mages went there and didn't come back? I don't even remember… seriously. What guild did he come from?" The friend sitting opposite to her asked. She had a pretty face, long lashes and amazingly brown eyes.

Laxus listened to them and had an idea whom that description fits. It was not very probable, that it was really him, but nonetheless he listened. After all it could still be anyone he didn't know.

"Now that you ask… I think he was from some funny named guild. Ah, the one causing always such a ruckus. Wait, what was the name..?" She wondered and in that moment Laxus lost it. That could only be a bad joke of his grandfather, couldn't it? When did the old guy find out where _he _was?

"Fairy Tail." He mumbled more to himself than to anyone else.

"Yeah! That's it! I remember now, the guild's name was Fairy Tail!" She exclaimed happily.

_While another person in the bar sighed heavily._

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><p>So, the second chapter. :D Hope you liked it! (<strong>Disclaimer: <strong>Still not a single character is mine...) Ah, and I hope you don't hate Shonen Ai or Yaoi, since this will be a story with some elements of that genre in it, so^^ Hah, but I promise I'll surprise you =D

Yep, that's about it. But I have to thank **sissycus **for reviewing! Thank you!

RedMamba ;D


	3. Pride of a man

The stench almost knocked him out again. It reeked of almost rotten plants and stale air, as if there never had been a wind blowing through the room. He coughed there was still dirt and sand in his throat. Immediately he felt a sharp pain striking his chest. He tried to open his eyes.

He was sure his eyes were open, but he couldn't see anything. It was pitch black, nothing seemed to have a distance. The wall of the room he was in could have been two feet away and it could be a hundred meters far. He moved his head the way to where his chest was, maybe he could see himself. But nothing was there, or it was there, he only wasn't able to see it. That made him even more nervous. At the same time he thought how dependent humans were of their sight. He couldn't remember a time, when he was this worked up.

He tried to move his arms. A sudden dull pain went through him. His arms were chained to something metallic, heavy. Then Mystogan realized something that disturbed him. He stood. If someone was unconscious, normally that person would fall to the ground and, if able, go to fetal position. He had been unconscious for… a while and he was standing upright. He swallowed. This was not a good sign. Plus he was chained to somewhere he couldn't see and was somewhere he didn't know and he was injured.

He thought, maybe trusting his ears would help. So he listened. Listened to the soundless darkness around him, listened to the noiseless melody the obscurity sang. He shivered. Never in his life had he been in such a situation. No sight, no hearing and he couldn't move. He coughed again and felt the sand scrap his throat. He didn't think something like this could ever happen.

At least he could feel that fact reassured him a bit. Then he realized that he couldn't feel his scarf or his cloak. That meant whoever kept him here, knew what he looked like. Oh hell, this wasn't good at all, in the end he would be put in jail because he looked like _that _guy.

_Calm down, _he said to himself. He didn't know he had such a panicky side to him and found it really disturbing. He had to come up with a plan on how to get out of here and take that monster down. That thing with the red eyes, which had looked at him as if he would be eaten at any moment, that beast was something to worry about. He once again moved his right arm and the pain grew stronger, there was something wrong with his arm. He pulled his arm a bit down and gasped as he felt something sharp piercing his hand. Not only was there those hand-cuff like things, but they had spikes on them, so that if he would try to pull his hand out of it he surely wouldn't be able to use the hand ever after. The situation grew worse every second.

This time he moved his left leg up, but very slowly. He couldn't imagine how he would use his feet to come free, but he had to try. There it was again, the spikes pierced his foot. Okay, _now _he was in dire need of help. He couldn't move really, and if he did, he would be heavily injured.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down and tried to look around again and again he was greeted by that complete and utter darkness. And there was that smell of something rotting right beside him, or was it opposite? He counted slowly to ten and closed his eyes, since there was no use of them.

_When the eyes aren't usable, the other senses will cover up, _he told himself and started all over with the examinations of his surroundings. Only depending on his nose, his ears and his skin he scanned around him again. This time he found out that the air was circulating even though it reeked, but he wouldn't at least suffocate in here. The wall behind him was made of stones and cold. He then took a deep breath and tried to stop every sense of him apart from his ears.

Then there was a sound. Faint, but he heard it. Without knowing he had searched the whole time for something that said him he was alive and more or less well. He let his breath out relieved. Then he felt something like fur brush by his side. Now he was hallucinating. Something like that wouldn't happen, no, no. It happened. Again he felt the soft and rather nice feeling thing strode past him. Something cool touched his face, but he couldn't possibly see what it was.

"What?" He managed to say and was surprised by the thin voice of his. If this continued for long he would become crazy that was something he was sure of.

"Water" A raspy voice answered. It sounded like rubbing two stones together, two immensely big stones.

The cool thing was a glass of water then, he understood. But, did he really have to be _fed _by this thing? He swallowed. There were some borders he didn't want to cross and this was one of those few things his pride didn't allow. After all he was the _prince _of a whole country. Not here but still, it counted as being prince, even if he wasn't prince here, he still was someone with his pride. He didn't want to be on the mercy of this creature.

"Who are you?" He asked and searched for eyes in that complete darkness around him. But there was nothing. Why not, he was sure even this kind of thing had eyes, but he didn't see any.

"Nothing answer." The creature said and pushed the glass again against his cheek.

It seemed like he had to swallow his pride here and do what he needed to keep himself alive. The glass was now directly before his mouth and he sipped carefully. After a while he was quite sure it was water and drank it.

_Come on, you'd die if you don't, _he promised himself, but couldn't help worry a bit as he drifted into sleep again.

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><p>How big were the odds that the old geezer found out about his son's whereabouts and sent <em>that guy <em>to do the job and probably preventing Ivan from taking Laxus' Lacrima?

Not that big, Laxus thought and wandered further aimlessly through the streets. It still kept bugging him that whole matter with the awoken desert. He had heard of it, but he couldn't remember what exactly it did. The 'awoken desert' as far as he remembered his father once mentioned it to his grandfather, whereupon the geezer went pale and asked what Ivan found out. Then he turned around to go outside. If he could, he would now go and slap his younger self that he stays there and listens.

_What am I worrying about? That guy'll survive, _he said to himself and walked to the next bar and ordered a beer. Now everything was all right, he would now start to enjoy his newly won freedom.

"Really? Are you sure?" A high pitched female voice rang him out of his thoughts. She had the annoying sort of voice you couldn't help but listen. "The mage was nowhere to be found? Nothing of him?"

_Ah, nice. There we go again, _Laxus thought and was about to get up when a second, more panicking voice changed his mind.

"We found blood and footsteps. He was wandering around our village it seems. The blood we found next morning when we were checking the walls. The desert ate him! I'm sure of it!"

The woman gasped loudly and more voices joined the conversation until Laxus didn't understand anything, so he paid and left.

"Mister, do you know of the 'awoken desert'?" An old woman asked him when he went to the hotel he had a room.

He lifted his head and looked at her face. She was standing right in front of him and looked firmly at him. She knitted her brows and repeated her question.

"I have heard of it?" Laxus didn't know how to answer her. What was she doing questioning him in the middle of the stairway? He tried to go past her but she blocked his way.

"Then I will tell you the secret behind it." She whispered almost inaudibly. She met his surprised look with a strong and stern gaze. "Will you show me to your room?"

Okay, now it became strange. Laxus shook his head, said a "thank you" and brushed past her. He was almost at the end of the stairway when he heard her.

"You will not help your friend?"

_Oh shit, now things were going to be funny._

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><p>Hello hello. Sorry for the long wait again...<p>

Muhahaha what will happen next time ]:D I'll definitely will destroy Mystogan's pride more, maybe xD god I love him and Laxus. o.O  
>I'd like to hear what you think will happen :) a short klick on the button right below is the way ;)<p>

Thank you to the reviewers:

**Jubblalyne: **Hehe, thank you :3 well, the idea to the couple was me going "Yay, I need a crack-pairing!" and there you go... o.O it's nice at least you like it xD

**Red Valentino: **That's a good question there, though I don't think I'll answer it. You said yourself when this story takes place. After Fantasia and before Edolas :) So why Laxus knows Mystogan's face won't be part of the story. Maybe next? I don't know but I'm glad you like it!


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